>> C++'s basic things have been unchaged for what, 6-7 years now?
*snicker* *snort* *splutter* *wipe, wipe, the tea off the keyboard*
Sorry about that, it's not aimed at you, just at the idea that C++ is
even vaguely "solid" on that kind of time scale. But, well, 5 years
ago C++ didn't even *have* templates. (I know -- Ken Raeburn and I
were still exchanging email with people at AT&T on the design, and
subcontracting to Cygnus on the implementation.)
4 years ago, G++ didn't have *nested types* working; since Cfront 1.0
didn't even have the concept, this was fair -- it was introduced in
Cfront 2.x, and G++ needed a fair bit of internal change to deal (with
not keeping a global type list, in more subtle ways than seemed
possible at the time :-) I know it was 4 years ago because I'd been
hired by Cygnus at the time, and it was one of my first couple of
projects (which started out as "there are some bugs in nested types"
and exploded from there :-)
Even now there are lots of "corners" of templates that simply don't
work, even if you stick with G++. (Don't even *start* to consider C++
as a language from multiple vendors...)
And the upcoming (what, 6 months worth of voting left, last I
checked?) ISO/ANSI C++ standards are adding *new keywords* like "use"
which are going to break existing code merely by existing :-) Lots
of, umm, opportunities for G++ hackers -- if you have any familiarity
with G++ or GCC internals, check http://www.cygnus.com/, we're hiring :-)
_Mark_ <eichin@cygnus.com>
Cygnus Solutions, Eastern USA